1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to a field of a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and more particularly, to a method and a system for handling a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address release request with a Proxy Mobile Internet Protocol (PMIP) or a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) based network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The 3GPP EPC supports two types of protocol over an S5 or S8 interface. Here the S5 will have a context of a User Equipment (UE) residing in a home operator and the S8 will have another context of the UE roaming with a visited operator. The two types of protocols include GTP and PMIP. The UE behavior is independent of the protocol. The UE has a Layer 2 (L2) connection with a Serving GateWay (SGW). The S5 or S8 connection can be for GTP or PMIP.
In a GTP based S5 or S8 connection, a GTP tunnel is formed between an SGW and a Packet Data Network (PDN) GW. For a PMIP based an S5 or S8 connection, a PMIP tunnel is formed between the UE and PDN GW.
In the existing techniques, the PDN includes a connection related context in the UE, a Mobile Management Entity (MME), an SGW, and a PDN GW. The context may or may not include an IP address.
A PDN connection can be allocated to at least one of an IPv4 address and an IPv6 address. A Binding Revocation (BR) is used by the Local Mobility Anchor (LMA) to revoke a binding for a particular UE. Further, for the PDN connection utilizing the PMIP based S5 or S8, the IP address forms integral part of the PMIP tunnel between the PDN GW and the SGW. According to the PMIP version 6 (PMIPv6), a Binding Cache Entry (BCE) and a Binding Update List (BUL) cannot be maintained without an IP address allocated for the UE. However in the existing techniques, the PDN connection may be lost when the IP address is deleted.
In light of the foregoing, there is a need for an efficient technique of handling a DHCP version 4 (IPv4) address release request with a PMIP or GTP based network.